When’s the last time you received an email from a store and that actually motivated you to get off your ass and go to the outlet or even spend money on their website. Social Media has slain the Monster of Direct Email Marketing. Not That It Doesn’t Have It’s Spammy Counterparts – Auto-DMs, Facebook Messages From Branded Fan Pages…etc.

Here’s how it’s going to work – You Exist. Online. As Long As I’m AWARE of where you exist (which is another matter altogether), rest assured, if i want to be updated on your company news, I’ll opt it by subscribing to your twitter feed, read your blog, or fan you on Facebook. And then I’ll visit you when I decide. Not the other way around. End Of Story. Disagree with me all you want, it won’t make you any righter. And if it’s not clear that this is the future you’re resisting, just give it a few months.

Brands that don’t embrace Social Media as a way to reach their goals (no, you don’t have to give up) will fail. The purpose of, and results once generated by, email marketing, can still be accomplished – Except now through this new and scary interface call the interwebs. Traditional BROADCAST Advertising still has it’s place. But Email just isn’t one of those. In My Mind, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks this way – An Email from McDonald or Starbucks or The Gap (I haven’t thankfully, I’m just arbitrarily choosing widely recognized brands for argument’s sake) is equivolent to the spam I receive about Acai Berry Weight Loss, Penis Enlargement Pills, And Cheap Watches – Garbage.

And I’m being nicer than I should – I’m 24, I’ve seen successful email marketing. But try emailing a 15 year old & they’ll laugh at you. That’s not how people engage brands anymore. Truth. Statistics be damned.

On a less frustrated note, here are some awesome reads you should definitely check out:

My Problem with this video, was that it was bragging about a feature that they copied from google chrome – a privacy setting known as the incoginto window, allowing one to keep ones browsing history, temporary internet files…etc. hidden. Basically – For Porn Purposes.

Now, as reported by CNET, PC World, and All Things D – Days After My Initial Post & the Ad Age Coverage I Might Add – The Video/Ad is being pulled after complaints over the excessive vomiting…SERIOUSLY? I had to search for another file to embed with the video after the one from my earlier post, below, was disabled. Thankfully, I’ve got one back up.

Personally, I don’t know what all the hype is about. The video, Directed by the one and only Bobcat Goldthwait, is probably the funniest in microsofts entire advertising and marketing repertoire. If anything, they should be furthering the spread of the video, not hindering it’s potential viral explosion by disabling the embed code and taking it off their site.

What do you think?

Original Post

This may very well be the funniest IE8 Promo Video (There are a lot of them) To Date. Adage’s Abbey Klaassen discusses the latest bunch here, but the one below is really all you need to see. I give Microsoft some credit for attempting to revamp their corpo-anonymous image with a newfound edgy humor.

It’s too bad the feature they’re touting in this video was a Google Chrome Innovation known as the Incogninto Window…

UPDATE: ADAGE’S KEN WHEATON REPORTS: THIS VIDEO WAS PRODUCED BY PLAYBOY, NOT QUIZNOS

“Watch the video until the end and you’ll see that it was produced by Playboy. Or, you know, pick up a phone and call Quiznos (or, in my case, have someone else pick up a phone and call the sub shop). According to Quiznos spokeswoman Allison Riley, the company had nothing to do with the video. It didn’t produce it. It didn’t pay for placement. Nada.”